So please, send your favorite and/or least favorite compositions, 5 at the most for each (don't want to flood this thing). It may be difficult to narrow it down if you really like/don't like his work (I personally find it too hard, so I will abstain, if not to also remain unbiased for the polls). 

Please also specify what version of that composition you like/dislike the most. As you may know, he has adapted many of his compositions over the years, which is one of my favorite things about his performances. For instance, I'm not much of a fan of the original Pound for a Brown recording off of Uncle Meat because I don't really enjoy the recording techniques used during that first Mothers line-up (with the pitched-up winds), but I much prefer later versions, like the one off of Live at the Hammersmith, released posthumously. I want to know the ultimate/worst version of this piece. Everything is on the table, including his exclusively classical compositions.

I actually love the original Pound For A Brown; I actually rank a different version of it on the same album ("The Legend Of The Golden Arches") as one of my favourite Zappa tracks. Off the top of my head, "Inca Roads" , "Echidna's Arf", "The Dog Breath Variations" and "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" are four other compositions of his that I absolutely adore.

On the other hand, I also find a depressing amount of his music from the late 70s and early 80s to be so vile and embittered as to be virtually unlistenable. If he has ever written a song that's worse than "Jewish Princess" then I'd really hate to hear it...

Least favorite is easy for me...really another off of Cruisin' With Ruben & The Jets. I'll just choose five songs at random from that: Jelly Roll Gum Drop, Love Of My Life, Anything, Fountain Of Love, Cheap Thrills.

Most favorite is definitely much more difficult. I'll attempt with the following: G-Spot Tornado, Inca Roads, Didja Get Any Onya?, When Yuppies Go To Hell, Eat That Question

Haha, same. Real easy to do with that guy no?

Ok, I listed some favorites already here.. (3rd post down)

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=122690" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=122690

For least favorite I'll go with the whole album of Thing-Fish.

The Black Page #2 (Zappa in New York)

Echidna's Arf (of you) (Roxy)

Sinister Footwear II (Them or Us)

Keep it Greasy (Joe's Garage 2)

Watermelon in Easter Hay (Joe's Garage 2)

All of Freak Out

Bobby Brown Goes down (Sheik Yerboutu)

Elvis Has Just Left the Building (Broadway the Hardway)

I Don't Even Care (Mothers of Prevention)

Jumbo Go Away (U R ? U Iz)

Favorite: Valley Girl

Least Favorite: Anything off Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar

I actually chose this for this topic BECAUSE it could be quite difficult. It also might give his listenership a boost. Some people might read this and really despise him, but could change their mind after they hear some tracks or versions they've never heard before. Or maybe a fan of only one period will expand their horizons a bit. Who knows what could happen?

Haha...I guess the joke is just lost on me. I don't get any humor in it...it plays much more like an homage than a parody to my ears. I also find the lyrics just to be dull and if meant as a joke play much too close to actual lyrics of the time period for me to find them funny (they don't come off as ironic to my ears, for example). 

Not big on Utopia, but Ship Arriving actually has some good stuff on it. Specifically Envelopes and Drowning Witch. The latter is one of his most complicated pieces, similar to the dense stuff on Alien Orifice (I like that one too, great pick). It's goofy, but I really admire it when he combines compositional craziness with some tongue-in-cheek stuff. Helps remind us to never take anything too seriously. Another couple of tracks that do that are The Blue Light and Tinseltown Rebellion (the former transitions to the latter). I used to be kind of bored by these, but it took a couple listens for me to actually pay attention and hear the impressive stuff.

This is interesting. 

Do you dislike the other guitar oriented albums as well or is there something just about Shut up that doesn't do it for you?

Some favourites in extra random order: Lemme That You To The Beach, Stink Foot, Why Does It Hurt When I Pee, The Illinois Enema Bandit, Tell Me You Love Me, Flakes, Trouble Every Day, I'm The Slime, Cheepnis, Po-Jama People, Dangerous Kitchen, Hot Plate Heaven At The Green Hotel... I can go on for ever.

I don't really like Sharleena though!

I guess my favourite is "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" (an uncanny piece of musique concrete at the end of We're Only in It for the Money). Usually I find his early work with the Mothers of Invention the most interesting.

Least favourite: "Sharleena" I guess (in the version found on the outtakes compilation The Lost Episodes, mainly because it is too long, and I think it lacks the compositionaly creativity of his best work). Apart from that, I admit I do have some issues with a classic like "Bobby Brown", and that is mainly because of the lyrics. I like it musically though.

Least: Man From Utopia; his albums with the Mothers.

Inca Roads

Waka/Jawaka

Big Swifty

Eat That Question

I came up with another one I don't like: We're Turning Again.

[and, hell, I'm adding more: Grand Wazoo, Cosmik Debris, Watermelon in Easter Hay and The Radio is Broken]

Least favourite:

Blessed Relief is absolutely underrated. 

The Dangerous Kitchen has never failed to make me laugh, and I love it, even if it's not one of his more praised songs.

What's the ugliest part of your body is short but sweet. Since I was a teenager, I've always loved the line, "..but I think it's your mind." which makes more sense within the context of the song.

The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing is pure genius and hilarious as well.

There's so many I like, and as for the ones I don't like...that's harder.

I never really liked Camarillo Brillo (which I know is controversial) and..honestly, I can't think of another Zappa song I don't like.

Least fav (from what I´ve heard): Stick it Out (to me that song sounds to be homophobic humor from macho hetero man).

I really love Zappa´s sixties albums, also some in the beginning of seventies are quite good, but I think he started then just repeat himself and haven´t got really good ideas anymore.

I can't seem get through the entire 200 Motels album, most of his classical stuff doesn't really move me, and I don't listen to his synclavier music for hours on end, but there is no loathing involved.

For the record, Zappa was not homophobic, nor was he very prejudiced. However, he was against phony people, and never wanted anyone to take themselves too seriously. Because of that, his satire often times is quite biting, or shrouded in intense irony (see Bobby Brown Goes Down). So sometimes, it sounds like he is making light of certain things that, at least today, doesn't really fly, despite not actually being a supporter of that kind of thinking/behavior/language/etc. In fact, he despised "macho men" who thought themselves irresistible to women (see Bobby Brown Goes Down again). I try to just envision it in the context of the time. And while he is certainly witty, and I find I often agree with many of his philosophies, his portrayal of those messages has aged poorly in many of his songs. And he DEFINITELY was trying to be provocative. Certainly, if someone today was making similar statements, they wouldn't get very far, and I'd honestly be ok with them not getting far. Now is different than then.

The exception, though, might be some of the tracks on You Are What You Is--like Jumbo Go Away and Suicide Chump. It's part of the reason they made my least fave list--not that great as music and quite pointlessly mean really.

Ben Watson makes much the same point in his excellent Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play.

Still, going from adoring to intensely disliking is a big difference, that was why I was wondering 

Most favourite -  Ocean is the Ultimate Solution

The guitar solos make my toes fizz. I should probably get that checked out.

Least favourite - The Adventures of Greggery Peccary

I want to know prefers the way Farther O'Blivion (yes FARTHER, not FATHER) was better before or after it became the Be-Bop Tango. I want to know which version of Billy the Mountain is the best. Who despises the punk satire songs, but loves the doo-wop stuff. Who is underwhelmed by Camarillo Brillo, but is hooked on his modernist stuff hiding in the form of a rock/fusion outfit, like Moggio or Sinister Footwear II (that last one would be me).

I'm probably asking for too much...